JPH0867038A - Rolled paper type recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a color printer which is highly precise in registration by a simple structure and excellent in image quality by a method wherein a clamp- opening-closing unit which clamps an end of rolled type recording paper and linearly reciprocates by the specific number of times, is used. CONSTITUTION: Rolled type recording paper 4 wound on a drum and an ink ribbon 6 having a dye layer in the order of a face are sent by pulling between a platen roller 2 and a thermal head 3. A tip of the recording paper is clamped with a clamp-opening-closing unit 5. They linearly reciprocate by taking a length indicated by the arrow as the maximum one between an initial position indicated with the clamp-opening-closing unit 5 and a drawn out position indicated by 5'. For their driving source, a timing belt is equipped to a gear provided outside the clamp-opening-closing unit, and they can be highly precisely linearly reciprocated by rotating the timing belt with the pulse motor. A cutter unit 7 is provided between the clamp-opening-closing unit 5 and a delivery opening 8, and the paper is discharged as cut paper of a specific size from the delivery opening 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for recording characters, figures, photographs and the like on roll paper wound on a drum. Particularly, it is useful as a color printer with a thermal head, using a color sublimation ribbon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in printers, a transfer material that selectively gives an impact force to a transfer material by a solid ball or a print wire, one that forms an ink jet by heat, vibration, an electric field or a magnetic field, and a transfer material that uses a thermal head There are ones that selectively apply heat to the heat sensitive recording paper, and ones that selectively apply heat to the thermal recording paper using a thermal head. Recently, there is a great need for colorization, and professional use in fields such as CAD and computer graphics is prospering not only for general-purpose printers but also for commercial use. By the way, since various conventional printers mostly use cut paper, the paper transport path inside the device must be complicated, and as a result, it is difficult to increase the size and maintenance of the recording paper. ing. These problems are important especially in the case of color printers. In addition, the complicated paper conveyance path makes it difficult to improve the alignment accuracy in a color printer that prints three colors and black four times, so that the color image quality is not sufficient. There was a vicious circle in which a more complicated mechanism was required to improve the alignment and the image quality.

On the other hand, there is also a method of using roll paper instead of cut paper. For example, a large drum is used to wind the recording paper on the circumference thereof, and the drum is rotated four times to make four rolls on the same surface.
It was possible to print once. This method requires a particularly large drum for large format printing,
Moreover, in order to obtain a printing surface of several kinds of sizes, a drum having a plurality of diameters is required, and the size of the apparatus is inevitably large. There is also a method in which after the roll paper is pulled out from the drum, multiple roller units are installed in front of and behind the platen roller, and the recording paper is repeatedly fed forward and backward in the main scanning direction, but this is the most important point. Some paper feed mechanisms are of poor practicality.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a printer using a roll paper, which has a simple structure and has a high printing accuracy by increasing the alignment accuracy, and which is excellent in image quality such as resolution and gradation. The purpose is to provide a color printer.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems As a result of intensive investigations by the present inventors, the above problems can be solved by using a clamp opening / closing unit that holds an end of a roll-type recording paper and linearly reciprocates a predetermined number of times. This led to the present invention.
That is, the present invention is the following (1) to (9).

(1) In a recording apparatus composed of a platen roller, a roll-type recording paper which is fed on the platen roller, and a recording head, a main run in which the end of the roll-type recording paper is held and recorded at one time. A clamp opening / closing unit that linearly reciprocates a predetermined number of times for each recording according to the length in the working direction, and reverse rotation for pulling back the recording paper when the roll-type recording paper reciprocates a predetermined number of times Recorder equipped with a recording paper feed mechanism consisting of a roll paper drum. (2) The predetermined number of times of the linear reciprocating motion performed by the clamp opening / closing unit is the yellow, magenta, and
It is set to 4 times for cyan, black or 3 times for yellow, magenta, and cyan (1).
The recording device according to the item. (3) The recording apparatus according to (1), which is a thermal transfer recording apparatus in which the recording head is a thermal head. (4) The recording apparatus according to (3), wherein the thermal transfer recording apparatus is a sublimation type thermal transfer, and has an ink ribbon mechanism for feeding the sublimation type thermal transfer ribbon between the thermal head and the recording paper.

(5) The recording apparatus according to (1), further comprising a cutter unit between the clamp opening / closing unit and the sheet discharge port of the recording apparatus. (6) The clamp opening / closing unit includes a clamp plate for holding the end of the roll-type recording paper, one or more clamp rubbers, a clamp arm provided with a clamp rubber and pressable by a clamp spring, and pressing of the clamp arm. The recording apparatus according to item (1), which comprises a clamp release lever for loosening the release lever, a gear with a cam for operating the release lever, and a pair of discharge rollers for feeding the recording paper to the cutter unit. (7) The recording apparatus according to (6), wherein the clamp opening / closing unit has a roller mechanism for holding the end of the roll-type recording paper only by the roller and correcting the distortion of the recording paper by idling in the paper discharge direction. (8) A pulse motor and a timing belt are provided as a mechanism for giving the clamp opening / closing unit a linear reciprocating motion that is performed a predetermined number of times for each recording according to the length in the main running direction. The recording device according to the item. (9) The recording apparatus according to (1), wherein the platen roller is rotated by the movement of the clamp opening / closing unit and the paper.

The recording apparatus of the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it can print on roll-type recording paper using a head. For example, those using heat as recording energy include thermal recording in which a thermal head is brought into contact with recording paper to develop color by heating, and thermal transfer recording in which ink on a transfer film is transferred to recording paper by heating. Is a sublimation type ink sheet in which a sublimation dye is sublimated by heating from the back side of a dye layer and fusion type thermal transfer using a fusion type ink sheet which is melted by heating and is diffused and dissolved in a receiving layer of recording paper to be colored. It can be divided into sublimation type thermal transfer. There are pressure-sensitive recording in which pressure is used as recording energy and ink-jet recording in which pressure is applied to a recording paper by controlling the ejection and flight of ink droplets by pressure to cause color to develop due to a chemical change. Although various methods have been developed for this inkjet method, they are broadly classified into on-demand type and continuous type. Further, on-decond type includes electromechanical change type, electric heat change type, electrostatic suction type. There are formulas. Among them, the bubble jet method using a thermal head and the thermal inkjet method are suitable for the present invention. In addition, as the recording energy, there are energization thermal recording using electricity, electrostatic recording, recording using light and magnetism, and various recording methods can be applied to the present invention.

Among these, those using a thermal head as the head are particularly suitable for the recording apparatus of the present invention in terms of operability, resolution and gradation, and include thermal recording, melting type thermal transfer, sublimation type thermal transfer and bubble. Jet is preferred. Among these, sublimation type thermal transfer has high image quality such as high gradation and high reproducibility of image density, smooth gradation in low density area, high density and high resolution. Have advantages such as relatively small size and low cost, easy maintenance, short output time, and high speed, and these features are the features of the color printer of the present invention. Especially effective for. The roll-type recording paper used in the present invention is a paper that can be used in each of the above-described recording systems, and is not wound in the form of a sheet but wound around a reel or a drum in a continuous state. For sublimation type thermal transfer, for example, a receptive layer designed to facilitate dyeing is provided on a smooth base material, and a releasable layer is provided on the surface of the receptive layer to prevent heat fusion with the transfer film. The received image receiving paper is used.

When the roll-type recording paper passes between the head for printing and the platen roll, recording is performed by each of the above-mentioned recording methods. For example, in sublimation type thermal transfer, in addition to the image-receiving paper, a transfer film provided with a dye layer containing a sublimable dye on one surface of a base film such as a polyester thin film and a heat resistant slipping layer provided on the back surface of the ink is wound up. Ribbon is used. Overlay the transfer film and the image receiving paper,
When passing between the thermal head and the platen roll, the sublimable dye is sublimated by being heated to a high temperature instantaneously from the back surface of the dye layer, diffused and dissolved in the receiving layer, and colored. Full color images are yellow, magenta, cyan,
1 black transfer film frame-sequentially with a thermal head
It is obtained by outputting each color and overlapping. The case where black is not used in the color is also included in the present invention. In the recording method using an ink ribbon such as sublimation type thermal transfer, a monochromatic ribbon in the case of a single color or a multicolor ribbon in the case of a multicolor is used, and in the case of a multicolor ribbon, a stripe coating method, a dander coating method, etc. However, in the present invention, it is preferable to use a frame-sequential system for performing recording in a line system for each screen, for example, a system having a dye layer of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black in a frame sequence. The order of these dye layers may be different.

As for the ink ribbon, one wound on a reel is wound on another reel in sequence as the recording head passes, but the roll type recording paper is clamped at its leading end and has a length required for one screen. Only the clamp opening and closing unit linearly pulls out in the main running direction. In the present invention, the operation of the clamp opening / closing unit is important,
First, the tip of the roll-type recording paper is pressed against a metal part by a clamp made of one or more rubber pieces, and the pressing to the front end of the recording paper has a releasing mechanism as described later. . Secondly, the clamp opening / closing unit pulls out the recording paper, and pulls back the recording paper by the reverse rotation force of the roll paper drum. The clamp opening / closing unit is located closest to the platen roller and recording head (initial position).
And linearly reciprocate between the farthest position (drawing position). Third, the actual printing, that is, once for a single color,
In the case of color, the paper is fed in the blank before 4 or 3 times. The blank feeding of the paper is to rewind the roll paper after the front end of the roll paper is clamped only by the rollers and the paper is pulled out in a paper discharge direction by a length required for one screen without printing by the head. The paper called skew is corrected from the right position to the right and left of the main running direction at right angles to the left and right, and the property of the paper itself to correct the distortion is used to return to the correct position and then the roll paper drum. The roll paper is rewound to its original position by the reversing force of. Fourth, when printing of one screen, whether it is single color or color, is completed,
After the clamp opening / closing unit returns to the initial position once, the clamp is loosened and the rollers in the clamp opening / closing unit rotate at the same time, so that one screen of the printed recording paper is fed to the paper ejection unit.

As described above, in the present invention, the drum around which the roll-type recording paper is wound is rotated in the forward direction without counteracting when the end of the recording paper is pulled out by the clamp opening / closing unit. When the clamp opening / closing unit returns to the initial position from the pull-out position, the recording paper is rewound by one screen in the main running direction by the force of the reverse rotation applied to the roll paper drum. The main running direction in this specification means the direction in which the roll paper passes from the roll paper drum between the platen roller and the head and goes to the paper discharge port. The function and structure of the head for printing in the present invention can be widely changed depending on which of the above recording methods is adopted. That is, the function and structure of the head changes depending on the energy of the recording method. For example, various types of electric, pressure, heat, light, and magnetic energy have already been known, and these structures are also adopted in the present invention. Among these, the thermal head is not only excellent in terms of functions such as print density, high speed, low noise, and operability, but also excellent in terms of structure such as unitization and miniaturization, and is suitable for the present invention. .

In the present invention, the driving force for linearly reciprocating the clamp opening / closing unit between the initial position and the pull-out position requires high driving accuracy in order to improve the accuracy of paper alignment. Since the pulse roller is highly accurate but expensive, for example, a gear for linearly moving the unit is provided outside the clamp opening / closing unit, and a rubber belt is attached with a timing belt with teeth at regular intervals. By rotating the timing belt with a pulse motor, a desired highly accurate linear reciprocating motion can be achieved. After printing a predetermined number of times, monochrome or color roll-type recording paper is loosened at the initial position, and a pair of paper discharge rollers arranged vertically adjacent to the clamp discharge the paper. Head in the direction. The roll paper may be cut manually or semi-manually, but if desired, a cutter unit may be provided on the way from the clamp opening / closing unit at the initial position to the discharge port. If necessary, one set or one or more sets of rollers can be provided in the front and rear of the cutter unit, that is, in the path from the clamp opening / closing unit to the paper exit through the cutter unit. By providing the cutter unit, the roller-type recording paper is sequentially accumulated in the paper discharge port in the same manner as the normal cut paper.

In addition, the recording apparatus of the present invention includes recording paper,
Drives various sensors for the purpose of detecting the position of the ink ribbon, clamp open / close unit, etc. and the paper edge, circuits and memory for driving the head, cooling fan, input / output connectors, overcurrent breaker, and other parts Motors, an opening / closing section for maintenance, etc. are provided as needed.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an entire sublimation type thermal transfer color printer. In FIG. 1, a recording apparatus 1 of the present invention has a roll-type recording paper 4 wound between a platen roller 2 and a thermal head 3 around a drum and dye layers of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black in a frame order. The sublimation type ink ribbon 6 has been sent. The leading end of the roll-type recording paper is clamped by the clamp opening / closing unit 5. The clamp opening / closing unit linearly reciprocates between the initial position indicated by 5 and the pull-out position indicated by 5'with the maximum length indicated by an arrow in the drawing. Although the drive source is not shown, a gear provided outside the clamp opening / closing unit 5 is provided, a timing belt is attached to the gear, and the timing belt is rotated by a pulse motor, so that highly accurate linear reciprocating motion can be performed.

A cutter unit 7 is provided between the clamp opening / closing unit 5 and the sheet discharge port 8, and cut sheets of a predetermined size are discharged from the sheet discharge port 8. The ink ribbon 6 is composed of two drums 6 and 6 ', and yellow, magenta,
Cyan and black are sent in frame order. FIG. 2 is a detailed sectional view of the clamp opening / closing unit 5. It is preferable that the clamp opening / closing unit roughly includes an upper unit 5a and a lower unit 5b, and the upper unit 5a can be opened / closed for maintenance. Tip 13 pulled out from roll-type recording paper 4
Is clamped by a clamp rubber 10 and a metal clamp plate 9 provided on the clamp arm 11. With the paper clamped, the entire clamp opening / closing unit makes a linear reciprocating motion in the direction of the arrow in the figure. The number of the clamp rubbers 10 need not be one, and it is preferable to divide the clamp rubbers 10 into several pieces according to the width of the recording paper, for example, about 6 pieces in order to make the pressing uniform.

The clamp arm 11 is opened and closed by rotating the gear 17 with the cam 16 to rotate the moving clamp open / close lever 15 in the direction of the arrow in the figure, and the clamp open / close lever 15 resists the clamp spring 14. hand,
The clamp is opened by rotating the clamp arm 11 in the direction of the arrow in the figure. The pressing by the clamp is the opposite operation, and the paper 13 is pressed between the clamp rubber 10 and the clamp plate 9 by the pulling force of the clamp spring 14. A pair of discharge rollers 12a and 12b are provided close to the clamp rubber 10 and the clamp plate, and the recording paper 13 on which printing for one screen is completed is provided in the discharge port direction through between the upper and lower paper guides 18a and 18b. The cutter unit 7 is sent.

In addition to the above mechanism, the operation during recording will be described. The clamp opening / closing unit 5, which clamps the leading edge 13 of the recording paper by opening and closing the clamp at the initial position, uses a timing belt and a pulse motor (not shown) to empty the paper only by the rollers without operating the recording head. While moving out with, move linearly to the left for the length of the main running direction recorded at one time.
After that, since the reverse rotation force is applied to the roll paper drum 4, the recording paper 13 returns to the initial position without sagging. At this time, the distortion called skew that has occurred on the recording paper 13 is corrected, and the leading edge of the recording paper is shaken by the recording paper itself in the direction orthogonal to the main operation direction, and the recording paper 13 is returned to the correct position. As described above, in the present invention, the idling operation of the recording paper is important for skew correction, and particularly in the case of color printing, the subsequent four-color or three-color printing is accurately aligned. This will greatly contribute to the improvement of image quality. Next, printing is performed once for a single color and four or three times for a color. With the front end of the recording paper 13 clamped, the clamp opening / closing unit 5 pulls out the recording paper again from the initial position by the timing belt and the pulse motor. During the drawing, the thermal head 3 prints the first print on the recording paper, for example, black for a single color of black and yellow for a color print from the ink ribbon 6. As the recording paper is fed, the ink ribbon passes between the recording paper 4 and the thermal head 3 and is wound between the drums or reels 6 to 6 ′. When the clamp opening / closing unit 5 completes the drawing and the first printing and the clamp opening / closing unit reaches the drawing position, the recording paper is pulled back with the leading end of the recording paper clamped without loosening the clamp. In the pulling back, the clamp opening / closing unit returns to the initial position, and the reverse rotation given to the roll paper drum 4 causes it to accurately return to the original position.

If the printing is a single color, the next sheet discharging operation is started, but if the printing is a color printing in which the effect of the present invention is strongly exerted, the same operation as in the case of the above-mentioned yellow is performed by the clamp opening / closing unit with magenta, cyan, After repeating the black process, the process returns to the initial position and the next paper discharge operation is started.
In this state, all prints have been recorded. Black may be omitted in color printing. In the paper discharge operation, a pair of paper discharge rollers 12a and 12b arranged close to the clamp rubber 10 and the clamp plate 9 in the clamp opening / closing unit 5 starts to rotate, so that the recording paper 13 which has been clamped is rewound. The leading edge is sent in the main running direction by the paper discharge roller. Since recording is completed in this state, the recording paper may be directly guided to the paper ejection port and stored in a tray, etc., but it is usually easier to use cut paper of a predetermined size. In this embodiment, the recording paper guided by the upper and lower paper guides 18a and 18b is cut by the cutter unit 7 so as to be orthogonal to the main operation direction, and is sequentially accumulated on the tray from the paper discharge port 8.

[0020]

As described above, the recording apparatus of the present invention is mechanically simple in comparison with that it is possible to record large-sized ones. Therefore, the size can be reduced, the number of failures is small, and the maintenance is easy. Secondly, by repeating the reciprocating motion of the clamp opening / closing unit and first providing the idle feed mechanism for skew correction, the alignment accuracy is significantly improved, and the printing accuracy and resolution are improved. Therefore, particularly in color printing, printing excellent in image quality such as gradation is achieved. Thirdly, when the cutter unit was provided, the roll paper was obtained as the final recorded product in the same state as the ordinary cut paper. Fourthly, since roll paper is used, it exhibits many excellent effects, such as easy paper setting, in combination with the action of the clamp opening / closing unit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of an embodiment of a recording apparatus of the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a clamp opening / closing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Recording Device 2 Platen Roller 3 Print Head 4 Roll Recording Paper 5, 5a, 5b Clamp Open / Close Unit 6, 6'Ink Ribbon 7 Cutter Unit 8 Paper Ejection Port 9 Clamp Plate 10 Clamp Rubber 11 Clamp Arms 12a, 12b Paper Ejection Roller 13 Recording Paper 14 Grump Spring 15 Clamp Release Lever 16 Cam 17 Gears 18a, 18b Paper Guide

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus comprising a platen roller, a roll-type recording paper which is pulled and fed on the platen roller, and a recording head.
Clamp opening / closing unit that linearly reciprocates a predetermined number of times for each recording according to the length in the main running direction recorded for each time, and the recording paper when the roll-type recording paper reciprocates a predetermined number of times. A recording apparatus provided with a recording paper pulling-out mechanism including a roll paper drum capable of reverse rotation for pulling back. 2. The predetermined number of linear reciprocating motions performed by the clamp opening / closing unit is four times in total for yellow, magenta, cyan, and black of color recording, or three times in total for yellow, magenta, and cyan. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording apparatus is set to. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head is a thermal transfer recording apparatus that is a thermal head. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the thermal transfer recording apparatus is a sublimation type thermal transfer apparatus and has an ink ribbon mechanism for feeding the sublimation type thermal transfer ribbon between the thermal head and the recording sheet. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cutter unit between the clamp opening / closing unit of the recording apparatus and the sheet discharge port. 6. The clamp opening / closing unit, a clamp plate for holding an end of a roll-type recording paper, one or more clamp rubbers, a clamp arm provided with a clamp rubber, which can be pressed by a clamp spring, and a clamp arm. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a clamp release lever for loosening the pressing force of the printer, a gear with a cam for operating the release lever, and a pair of discharge rollers for feeding the recording paper to the cutter unit. 7. The clamp opening / closing unit has a mechanism for holding the end of the roll-type recording paper only by the roller and idling the paper in the paper discharge direction in order to correct the distortion of the recording paper. The recording device described. 8. A pulse motor and a timing belt are provided as a mechanism for giving the clamp opening / closing unit a linear reciprocating motion that is performed a predetermined number of times for each recording according to the length in the main running direction. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 9. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the platen roller is rotated by the movement of the clamp opening / closing unit and the paper.